


Time Break

by captain91



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-18
Updated: 2008-10-18
Packaged: 2017-11-07 09:03:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/429274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain91/pseuds/captain91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>what happens when the TARDIS lands in a universe where the laws of physics have no meaning? even The Doctor can't rely on his superior Time Lord Senses</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Break

**Author's Note:**

> This is a piece i wrote a while ago for school coursework - since been edited a bit. please let me know what you think and how i can improve this.

Title: Time Break  
Rating: universal i think, but i' hopeless at rating these things! let me know if it should be changed  
characters: 10/Rose and TARDIS  
spoilers: no noticeable ones  
disclaimer: not mine... yadda yadda!  
length: 1701 words  
Summary: what happens when the TARDIS lands in a universe where the laws of physics have no meaning? even The Doctor can't rely on his superior Time Lord Senses  
notes: This is a piece i wrote a while ago for school coursework - since been edited a bit. please let me know what you think and how i can improve this.

This is also my first attempt at an ljcut, and i'm not sure if it will work. If not sorry and **_help!_**

 

Suddenly the TARDIS spun out of the time-space vortex, whirling violently somewhere entirely unknown. The TARDIS’s tracking systems had gone haywire. The locator device claimed they were not anywhere—there wasn’t even a TARDIS in the universe according to its readout. The gravity controls had malfunctioned.

The Doctor knew only one thing. They were falling towards the ground. Fast. Too fast. Slowing down would be impossible. The TARDIS would splinter. They would be in the void forever.

The Doctor, holding onto his main panel to stop himself from floating away, stared at the screen in horror. Solid barren rock coming at them for a direct impact—they didn’t stand a chance. He looked up at Rose, struggling to maintain control of her current chaotic circuit around the room. He had sworn to always protect her; now she would die senselessly. He couldn’t even tell himself she had died to protect a planet or species; they would, if anything, desimate the land below them.

As his body tipped upside down in the zero gravity, a jumbled mass of objects streamed from his pockets and floated around the room. Pieces of string, wire, stones, foil, sweets, odd pieces of alien junk, ever-lasting matches, a rock cake made with real rock from Spandaclout, and a banana. To his right, a shiny object spun around in the air. He beamed at the sight of his sonic screwdriver. Determined not to be separated from it, he grabbed it in his right hand. To his left a small silver ball with strange symbols on it spun around into view. Automatically, The Doctor stretched out with his left hand and took hold of it.

By the time he realised he was floating away from the TARDIS’s console, it was a futile effort to reach out for it. Unlike Rose, The Doctor didn’t panic at this latest addition to his problems. When you travel time and space, battling ferocious monsters, saving planets, and occasionally regenerating after one of your idiotic human companions made a mistake, you stopped worrying about every little thing. If you did, you’d never have time to do anything else.

He turned the ball slowly around between his fingers. It was his trusty five-dimensional compass. The readings on it were very odd. The psychic readouts were far too high for what should be possible in the TARDIS; and the magnetic field changed every second. This he shook his head, a look of mixed confusion and bemusement spread across his face.

A small spark of inspiration flickered through his eyes, the mildly arrogant grin of triumph spreading over his lips. “If I’m good, if I’m very very good—which I am—then I might just be able to stop this,” he said quietly to himself. “Now I need to get back to the TARDIS console, but how?”

As he looked around behind him, he realised he was only one and a half metres from the wall and about the same distance from the ceiling. There, slowly pulling herself around the wall at his height, was Rose. She was quite near and with just a few more movements, she would be able to help him reach the wall before his body started to move away again.

“Hi there stranger, did you fancy a wander?” Rose asked with a cheeky grin. She had to call it to him twice more before he heard her, as the air was very thin. They were forced to adopt psychic communication, which was never a good thing for the brain—just like putting it on defrost in a microwave.

With a good tug from Rose, The Doctor was soon holding tight to the wall. A quick bit of calculation determined a fairly direct route back to the console. The odd pair set off side-by-side, pulling themselves along on ridges, rails, and any other sort of gap they could grab onto. Once or twice, one of them started to float away and needed hauling back, but eventually they reached the console.

The Doctor glanced around at the readings of the many pieces of equipment, tapping randomly at different ones with a confused expression on his face. Rose gripped grimly on by his side, carefully holding his compass up for him. She didn’t have a clue what he was doing. The only thing that concerned her was on the tele-screen; the ground tumbling towards them—fast. Her chest tightened, breathing rapidly increasing, but she had to control it for the both of them. Her hands gripped tighter as she did her best o calm down.

The Doctor caught sight of the panic-stricken face and tense muscles as she stared into the screen before her. He had to get them out of this, if only to uphold the promise he’d made on their fateful meeting.

But what could he tell her for now? He had some suspicions, but that wasn’t much to go on. He could be entirely wrong and still end up disintegrating the pair of them. “Rose,” he barked in a commanding voice that demanded attention. She looked up at him; not even when she had faced a Dalek had she looked so scared. His voice softened a bit. “There’s a chance that is merely an illusion, but I can’t know for certain. I think it is a Móbius universe. It is millions of Móbius strips interwoven. If it is, then I can set a program to get us out. But if it isn’t then…” he trailed off and looked down at the floor.

Keeping one hand firmly on the console – he didn’t fancy floating off again – he quickly rummaged in the closed pockets of his coat, sending the contents floating around the room. “A-hah,” he cheered good naturedly, before going serious again, all the while still working on the readings on screen. In his hand he held a long, narrow (and rather crumpled) piece of paper. Using his mouth he put a half twist in it then made it into a loop. “OK Rose, a Móbius strip is like this piece of paper. If you were to go around the surface you would find it has only one side,” he said quickly, almost letting go of the console in his eagerness to demonstrate, “and that makes it an odd thing that defies the laws of physics. Millions of these interlinked make a Móbius universe that messes with time and space. That’s what I think this is here.”

She didn’t understand in the least, but knew if The Doctor said there may be a way out of this, she would put blind faith in him every time. He had gotten her into some sticky situations before, but he always got her out. “We’ve got to try,” said Rose decisively. “What do you need me to do?

The Doctor smiled at her, a sparkle of excitement glistening in his eyes. “Right, you just hold tight to anything you can,” he said reassuringly, but with sensitivity showing through. “I expect a great gust of wind pulling us towards the doors. It’ll get rid of all the corrupt atoms in here that have caused this. Then the TARDIS will be her old self again.”

Suddenly the TARDIS doors crashed open, a force stronger than a hurricane tugging on them. Many items in the room were unaffected, but Rose’s shirt and shoes were being pulled, lifting her from the ground. She hung on with extreme difficulty. Her fingers were slipping off the console rail. She slid. It was going to consume her. It was going to kill her. “Oh my God, I’m gonna be eaten by a piece of paper,” she shouted in terror, misunderstanding The Doctor’s explanation.

Suddenly her fingers slipped and she let go. She screamed as she flew towards the doors. There were black whirling circles racing towards her – they were like mouths with large sharp teeth. Other objects were flying out there. The circles were attacking them; crushing, grind, chewing. She never stopped screaming as she flew towards the door.

The Doctor himself was not physically affected, but he was being torn apart at the sight of her pleading, petrified eyes. He could do nothing to help her. He could only hope he was right.

Her ear-splitting scream suddenly turned to a terrified whimper as she became level with the door. She flew out. She gave one last blood-curdling shriek as she flew into the mouth of the hole. Then all the wind disappeared. The TARDIS doors slammed shut.The Doctor stood there dazed, the resounding echo of her terror tearing him apart. He had been wrong. He had killed her. How could he tell Jackie?

He dropped to his knees, tears now streaming from his eyes. He had vowed to always protect her. She never should have been consumed; he’d thought it was just an illusion.

“Rose Tyler, I love you,” he cried out brokenly.

Someone cleared their throat behind him. He spun round, his eyes almost dropping from their sockets. She was there, standing before him. She was alive. He jumped up and hugged her. He turned deep crimson realising she could have heard his vow of emotions.

“Did you say something when you were on your knees doctor? I couldn’t hear you,” said Rose innocently.

The Doctor merely smiled and shook his head, relief overflowing from his eyes.

Rose claimed that she knew what was going on after being in there – in the universe that tried to consume her. Apparently it had been a few hours for her since she’d gone out the doors. They had fallen into an intergalactic video game. They were still alive, with all the lost possessions replaced, and would have to fight their way out.

“And now I know just what to do. But let’s rest first,” said Rose as she began to collapse where she stood, under sheer exhaustion.

The Doctor silently picked her up in his arms as she fell into a deep sleep. He put her into a comfy armchair and wrapped her up in his jacket. “Yes Rose, you rest now,” he breathed. “And tomorrow we’ll do it all over again. But this time we’ll get out.”

  
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